Final Fantasy XII

[Anya 0]

I don't really hate FF XI. I just don't play it. It seemed ok for a MMORPG, a genre I don't like. I don't have the time or patience to play one. I barely will play any long game now. I still don't have XII.

[Conspiracy_Victim 0]

The guide arrived today. Really nice. Comes in a self-contained folder/flap closure. The art book is very nice with full color pictures of the main characters and smaller pictures of the ancillary characters, airships, and weapons.

 

I'm somwhat distressed at Cid's appearance in this one though. He looks like he had a makeover by the Queer Eye guys and is now Metrotastic. At this point I'd kill (at least maim) for Square Enix to have a non-androgynous looking main character.

[Black Lushus 0]

I think we can question the sexuality of just about any male Final Fantasy character....except Sabin and Cyan...those dudes were hardcore!

[LaParkaMarka 0]

Sabin's ultimate Blitz was called "Bum Rush".

[Black Lushus 0]

Sabin's ultimate Blitz was called "Bum Rush".

 

okay, that got a literal LOL out of me...you're right! damn!

[Conspiracy_Victim 0]

I think we can question the sexuality of just about any male Final Fantasy character....except Sabin and Cyan...those dudes were hardcore!

 

Nah it seems to be the main hero more often than not. Look at the secondary male characters. Auron, Wakka, most of the Cids, Zell, Irvine, Barrett. The only main characters that look particularly masculine are Squall and Cloud. I don't know what Square(Enix)'s fascination is, but it seems to work for them.

[Lightning Flik 0]

You forgot about Cecil in FF4, who was pretty masculine looking even while being a Paladin.

[Conspiracy_Victim 0]

Never got a chance to play the early ones. VI is about as early as I got, and even then it's just passing knowledge.

 

So, anyone got any good ideas on how to run the license board? I have no idea which way I should send each character, which weapons and armors they should use, etc. I've got a ton of LPs to spend, and I'm sitting there outside the mines in Bhujerba wondering what to do.

[Guest]

Spend them on weapons and armor that you can buy, and on magic that you can afford to buy. I just finished at the mines, you should probably buy Protect and get it licensed. I got all the technicks with my Gil, and licensed them.

[Guest Chumpstain]

So, anyone got any good ideas on how to run the license board? I have no idea which way I should send each character, which weapons and armors they should use, etc. I've got a ton of LPs to spend, and I'm sitting there outside the mines in Bhujerba wondering what to do.

 

If you need weapons and armour, spend towards those weapons and armour (this might require some guesswork if you don't know where a weapon type is). If you can buy spells you can't use, get those licenses. But when you've got a ton of points and don't know what to do with them, go spend them in the Augment section, left of Technicks and below Magicks. The lower part of the Augment section is geared towards melee, the upper part is geared towards spellcasting. As opposed to the weapon/armour/magick/technick licenses, which require you to own the item/ability as well, the Augments take effect and boost your power immediately. That's why, when you're in doubt, your points should go there.

[Cartman 0]

also a really good idea is to scope out where the Quickenings are and get them ASAP. Makes the Boss batles SO much easier.

[Conspiracy_Victim 0]

also a really good idea is to scope out where the Quickenings are and get them ASAP. Makes the Boss batles SO much easier.

 

Yeah I've mapped out on the board where most of them and I can get to a few of them but a couple of them take me through the accessories area, which is almost worthless to me right now. Although to knock off the hunt for the Nidhogg in the mines I may need to bite the bullet and spend the points to get there.

 

Plus I'm trying to figure out how to break up the Quickenings. I know each character can only get up to 3, so I'm trying to figure out the best way to break them up so everyone can get their max without wasting LPs.

 

So, what's everyone got their characters using? I've got Vaan using spears, Balthier using guns (although I like his flexibility since he can use some swords when you get him), Fran's still using bows (I'm trying to figure out where she's best suited), and Basche still using 1 handed swords/shield. I'm thinking Fran or Penelo might eventually become my major caster. I'm pretty sure there's a gambit so that the characters will automatically cast spells the opponent is weak against, I've just got to find it.

 

I like Balthier's sarcasm, but there's no one character that leaps out at me. Vaan's whiny, Basche is morose (without Auron's brooding), Penelo's the kid sister, and so far Fran's just there. I'm hoping there's a little bit more character development.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

for the moment I'm using swords with Vaan and Basch, Balthier is using a pole (only because I found a powerful Oaken Pole somewhere), Fran is using bows. Fran is my major magic caster, Vaan is kind of balanced, not a bad fighter but also does magic. Basch and Balthier are both melee fighters, though I'm thinking I should make one of them more varied.

 

I'm thinking of having one character use Spears. Any downsides to using them ie slowness?

[LaParkaMarka 0]

I have a character using a base spear, and it does some pretty crazy damage. It's actually pretty quick as long as the character isn't buried under heavy armour.

 

The Quickenings are pretty much broken. I have been able to beat the snot out of every boss using quickenings, one chain does upwards of 10k damage (that was against the snakey kinda mark in the mines). I'd almost suggest not using the Quickenings because it makes the bosses far too easy.

[World's Worst Man 0]

Quickenings eventually become useless when they don't do significant damage to bosses, and leave you with no MP for the rest of the fight.

[Cartman 0]

I was thinking that would probably be the case in the long run, but if you can get huge 15-20 plus combos off the damage is worth it.

[Guest NYankees]

What is the deal with the Bazaar? Are you supposed to sell things as soon as you get it or are you supposed to wait till you get other items to sell? I read a persons bazaar faq on Gamefaqs and it said you need certain combination of items to get a new item. My question is that do you have to sell everything together or can you just sell here and there and once you met the order then the item comes up for sale?

[World's Worst Man 0]

The game remembers everything you've sold, so you don't have to sell it all at once.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I started playing today after receiving it in the mail yesterday. I feared if I played yesterday before work, I would wander areas aimlessly and/or be caught up in cutscenes when I should be getting ready for work. That probably would have happened since I found myself playing for 3 hours without even realizing it this morning. I like the battle system (so far) but it feels odd at times. At the beginning of the game, my character kept doing nothing when fighting a group of guards, persumably because the enemy I targeted was killed by someone else and I didn't think to target another enemy. I think a better compromise to the real time battles would have been to do it like Earthbound - the enemy is seen and it's not random, but you have a standard menu based fight.

 

Change is good, though, and so far so good. People at work are raving about it too. Having a widescreen option is a nice touch, too.

[World's Worst Man 0]

SG, this is why we don't listen to a certain someone on a certain internet chat protocol.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, GQ.

[World's Worst Man 0]

Indeed, just don't listen

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I die A LOT in this game, especially considering it took me until (I think, memory may be a bit off) a battle with one of Seymour's forms in FFX to die for the first time - and I'm not exactly the best RPG strategist. I think part of that was I kept insisting on taking the mutant wolf bounty despite the fact I was alone and his 2 wolf companions made the battle quite difficult. When I finally got a second party member, she died and I had 3 enemies attacking me. Fleeing did me no good at all, the enemies just kept attacking me while I looked for a field exit.

[Lightning Flik 0]

I love this game. I bought it, has the epic feel for the storyline, breaks in with a bang concerning the "death of Dalmasca", and frankly I've been enjoying it. Can't wait to continue on with the main storyline.

 

Oh, and the idea of having a few "huge" guys is a brilliant idea, except I've died a few times because I was an idiot and walked into them.

 

Currently I'm right now trying to hunt the Cluckatrice to nab me a higher Clan rating. Damn thing is so tough to find. I've been at this for hours. Been having fun just mindlessly killing things. Finally figured out what I needed to do, I think. Just need to figure out where the flipping screw ball is the North Bank.

 

Oh, and the licensing board is quite awesome idea and works very well. Sure you lose the individuality, but I'm pretty much going with what the character's currently are as the basis. So Fran's my magic bowslinger (can use spears too), Panello's my all out staff/dagger pushover mage, Basch is my heavy knight (though, also has daggers, since Assassin Dagger is better damage), Baltier is my gunslinger (but can wield a sword), and Vaan can do a little of everything (I think I'm taking off his heavy armor though and slapping on the light armor). My team works very well for the most part.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

this game has stolen my life

I'm a believer in the battle system, i've been converted. Just roaming around the desert and plains killing randomly is actually very fun now, I spend more time doing that then I do moving the story forward, which is a first.

[Conspiracy_Victim 0]

I'm just milking LPs out of the mines. Killing skeletons gets old as shit after a while, but it's the wuickest method I can find of powering up my characters. I'm going to have to head to the Giza Plains next to advance the story, and I've heard I might want to be a bit overpowered before I go in there.

 

Everyone's still basically in the same role as how they started except Vaan (spears) and Penello (mage). Unfortunately Penello's a bit difficult to Gambit for, since she doesn't have enough MPs to be a pure mage, and she doesn't take a hit very well so she can't melee very much.

 

To be honest, I like the combat system and the license board, but the game as a whole just doesn't appeal to me as much as X. I don't know why. With X, I'd sit there and roam around just to look around. This one though just doesn't have the same draw.

[EricMM 0]

I am in deep deep love with this game. I got it on Friday night and I think I've put about 11 hours into it already, which is quite a lot.

 

The Gambits really really make leveling so much smoother. I kind of dislike how the Libra skill isn't 100% accurate (maybe there is a better version) and so I just have to guess whether or not I can kill the Nidhogg (I can) or the Rocktoise (I can't).

 

That being said, I'm obviously at the Mines at this point. Certainly I'm expecting the characters to differentiate more in the future, as right now I don't have any classic mages (wearing magic garb, wielding staves, etc.) but I DO enjoy killing skeletons, except when I somehow get five to spawn at once, and then have to hightail it back to the savepoint

 

I am imagining running this game something like a MMORPG with a very small, small party. As such I would think a good idea would be to divy up the magics between a buffer, debuffer, and damage..? At the same time, it would seem that to save LP would make it cleaner to divy up the magics between types. I'll just have to wait and see. Either way, if you're trying to have one character provide buffs, debuffs, AND do magic damage, they'll be out of MP quick!

 

Does anyone have any better idea of how to get the quickenings to work? I'm assuming I'll hit a tutorial at some point, but right now sometimes it tells me to press Triangle and sometimes it doesn't. And I don't know why.

 

The seamless battles should be the way of the future. Not that turn-based needs to go or anything, but the battles happening on the field map needs to become a staple. Random battles should just go away entirely, it's an outdated and completely unnecessary gimmick at this point.

Seriously, Chrono Trigger was quite a long time ago, and we've only JUST gotten back to the point where enemies aren't invisible.

[World's Worst Man 0]

I gave each magic user their own schools of magic. Penelo was black/time/arcane, Ashelia was white and green, Fran had a bit of everything. Eventually all of my characters ended up with every spell from every school of magic, as it was too easy to fill out the license board as the game went on.

 

For quickenings, you have to shuffle them (press R2 or R1 or something, it says on the screen) if they don't give you a chain option (you don't see the triangle button). It seems kind of random, but when you shuffle you will sometimes get the triangle button prompt, and will be able to chain the quickenings together.

[muzz 0]

Boo @ not having seen an Australian release date yet.

[EricMM 0]

Seriously people, if you are on the fence, go for it.

 

This game is boss.

 

And I'm only 10 hours in, just level 13.

 

Can't recommend it enough, and I haven't even gotten any Espers yet. I can only hope that this trend continues, and that the game is fairly long.